Kaito was not surprised at Bocchi's appearance. When Yumiko made plans with him to go out and play, she had used the excuse of "club team-building."
He was just a little puzzled. Usually the little socially anxious girl who didn't even dare make eye contact with store clerks when buying things actually had the courage to go out and play, and in Shibuya no less, a bustling area teeming with people and traffic.
But since they had already come, he didn't say much and nodded at the two girls.
"Good morning."
"Hehe~", Yumiko smiled brightly and confidently stepped forward, taking the club president's arm, "Let's go, toward our destination, let's depart."
"Do we even have a destination?"
He casually retorted, frowning slightly. Originally, Bocchi had been hiding behind Yumiko. After the golden-haired girl took his arm, the little social anxiety girl was left all alone, looking just like a homeless pink-haired hamster.
This kind of situation clearly couldn't be ignored, especially in such a crowded environment, so after hesitating a bit, he still extended his free hand.
"If you don't mind, you can hold onto my sleeve."
Of course Gotou Hitori didn't mind. Rather, she was flattered, like a lowly attendant fortunate enough to be granted an audience with the king. Although His Majesty the Emperor wasn't cold at all, and his attitude toward her could even be called gentle, she still trembled with fear.
There was absolutely no courage to refuse, and she didn't want to refuse either. But before little Bocchi could nervously reach out to grab the club president's sleeve, she saw Miura classmate winking at her and mouthing:
"Don't grab the sleeve, just hold his hand."
'Th-Th-Th-Th-Th… That's impossible!', Bocchi's face instantly turned red as she hurriedly lowered her head to hide her panicked emotions. The reason social anxiety is called social anxiety is because of fear of interacting with others. That's already hard enough with ordinary people, let alone when facing the "sun" in her heart.
Even if she wants to get close, the sun's brilliance is too dazzling, making her feel inferior and ashamed.
'Someone like me, a groundnut, a grasshopper, a sewer rat, merely touching the noble sleeve of the club president is already an unforgivable, top-tier crime of overstepping my bounds and rebelling against the heavens! Holding… h-h-h-holding hands or whatever… impossible! Absolutely impossible!'
Seeing her like this, timid, insecure, and shy, Miura Yumiko couldn't help but facepalm in her heart, feeling a headache.
She had specially crafted such a perfect opportunity. She understood the club president's personality very well. While he might look aloof and indifferent, that was just his camouflage.
The president wasn't cold at all, nor hard to approach. He was just a bit clumsy in social situations, like a newly hatched chick that needed a mother's guidance.
If you peeled away that protective layer, you'd find the real him is quite "easy to deceive," has no defenses around people he's close to, and is easily soft-hearted. It's enough to make one worry whether he'll be tricked by some wicked woman into having three kids, 'Wait, I'm the wicked woman myself, never mind, then.'
Ahem, in any case, as long as Bocchi was left alone looking all pitiful, with the president's personality, there's no way he'd just ignore her.
The stage had been set, and the play was unfolding just as she imagined, but the heroine got cold feet at the critical moment.
It was like Romeo and Juliet had agreed to elope. When night fell and Romeo painstakingly climbed over the wall into the Capulet garden and opened his arms toward the window saying "You jump! You jump!"—Juliet looked at him and said, "I thought about it… I've always seen you as a brother, so let's not bring this up again. You may take your leave, good sir."
Writers who penned such awful drama would surely be cursed out by angry audiences, and the actors on stage likely wouldn't escape being pelted with rotten eggs and vegetables either.
Annoying as it was, Yumiko quickly let it go when she considered Bocchi's personality. Bocchi was just that kind of timid little coward. Afraid even in the face of happiness, hurt by even the softest cushion, so it wasn't surprising she would shrink back.
'But it's fine, because I will take action.'
This three-some date was only just beginning. She still had many clever tricks up her sleeve, 'Just a mere club president, how can he possibly resist? No way he can resist. Surrender obediently under Bocchi-chan's sporty skirt.'
'Wait, isn't it kind of weird to be putting so much effort into helping another girl seduce my own boyfriend?'
Yumiko pondered it for two seconds, then decisively gave up on thinking.
'Well, well, these irrelevant little details don't matter at all.'
'Bocchi, I shall aid you.'
———
In the end, Kaito still took the pink-haired girl's little hand proactively.
Some say Shibuya is the place with the most beautiful girls in Tokyo. Here you can see cool, energetic, tall, petite, soft, moe, edgy… all kinds of girls in a wide variety of styles. And in this world, because of the gender imbalance, the number of beautiful girls is even several times higher.
When everyone is a beauty, you could say that no one is a beauty. So under these conditions, handsome guys undoubtedly stand out more.
Kaito was already used to being approached by strangers when going out, but when the crowd thickened, Yumiko was okay, but Bocchi, who originally only dared hold onto his sleeve, got pushed into a corner. And of course, she didn't dare complain, just stood there looking pitiful with all the softness of ten little Shoushou combined.
With no other choice, he took the initiative once more, gripping Bocchi's hand tightly and pulling her back to his side.
He also took the chance to cast a small mental suggestion spell on himself to slightly lower his attractiveness to passersby. Although some people still came up to flirt, the frequency was much lower than before.
Actually, Kaito wasn't too fond of this feeling of hiding himself. He preferred to face the world openly.
But having been in this world for so long, he had slowly learned to adapt.
Compared to constant interruptions, a little cover-up… wasn't such a bad thing.
With no one disturbing them, the three of them indeed enjoyed a period of free and relaxed time together.
But…
Was it just his imagination?
He kept feeling like today's Yumiko seemed a bit strange.
"Seemed" was just a polite euphemism.
If Kaito were to describe it more precisely… it would be, "Not at ease."
Of course, those four words deserve to be in quotation marks.
In any case, she kept doing bizarre things.
Including but not limited to: buying a crepe at a roadside stand, taking one bite herself, then letting Bocchi take a bite, then using the excuse that she couldn't finish it and having Kaito eat the rest.
It's normal for couples to share food, but throw in a third person and the vibe changes.
Even though Bocchi was a flawless beauty herself, Kaito still fell silent for two seconds.
The problem was, he found it hard to say no.
It wasn't out of any romantic interest, just that he wanted to take care of the little socially anxious girl's feelings, so she wouldn't think he was disgusted by her. This was undoubtedly an open trap.
He looked deeply at the giggling Miura Yumiko.
'Even while enduring the pain of pushing her boyfriend into another girl's arms, she can still smile this brightly?'
'Yumiko, you bastard…'
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